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OPINION

Kamena offers another 'gloom-and-doom' column

Drawing on the July 4 commemoration, Gene Kamena provided another gloom-and-doom column about the supposedly declining fortunes of the nation, an obsession on the right since Barack Obama has occupied the White House.

Kamena says "government transgressions are too numerous to list," but goes on to list several, the first being "infringement by federal and state governments on constitutionally protected Second Amendment rights."

This jaw-dropping claim leads one to wonder what planet Kamena lives on.

The mass slaughter of school children did not result in strengthened background checks for gun purchases despite the support of a vast majority of Americans. Several state legislatures have weakened gun control laws and open carry laws are proliferating. The notion that the government is going after the individual right to own firearms is pure right-wing fantasy, fueled by the NRA.

Kamena makes the sensible case that citizens should get informed on the issues and vote. One might become a little cynical, however, when considering that U.S. House districts are configured in such a way as to ensure the re-election of incumbents. Well over a million more votes were cast for Democrats than Republicans in the 2012 House races, but more races were won by Republicans, and Republicans retained control of the House. The same will be true this year.

If voters were truly informed, no representative who voted for the government shutdown would be returned to Congress. Unfortunately, they will all be re-elected and petty obstructionism and grandstanding will remain the order of the day.

Joel Sanders

Montgomery

Learn the true meaning of independence

After the occasion of celebrating the Independence Day of this great republic, the citizens thereof need to take a serious evaluation of the word independence and its meaning.

The true meaning, of course, is freedom from the control of another. Our original freedom came from getting independence from the British king by creating a government by the people and for the people and documenting it through the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution and its amendments of that day.

Those great leaders and men fought and won that from the king's rule. This independence did not come from a self-serving dictatorship that has evolved into today's controlling government, which started in the mid-1920s (except for the period of 1939-1947).

Current elected/appointed members of government bear little recognition to the original persons who established this great nation. It has evolved into a controlling entity of the people and not for the people.

History tells and shows us that when a people allow their controlling government to become a dictatorship, it will not survive. The citizens will become slaves to that government.

It is time for citizens to learn the meaning of independence and begin to change things.

Mac McGee

Pike Road

It's current policy that's causing border problems

Let's see if I get this right. Because of the crime and violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the liberals and our president say we must accept the children who are fleeing from the crimes and violence in those countries.

George W. Bush signed the original law, so it's his fault that 50,000 "children" have crossed.

How about the rumor circulating throughout Central America that if you get here with no border security, you can stay.

Who is sending that message to those countries?

Why aren't the poor children going to Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, or staying in Mexico?

All these countries are much closer to the crime they are fleeing.

Could it be their immigration laws are tougher?

Could it be our president and Nancy Pelosi are welcoming them for future votes in their culture?

Finally, our president is fundraising in Texas, but he doesn't have time to visit the border to actually see what his policy is causing.

Why?

Craig Washing

Montgomery

Collectivism: We've lost the will to fish

Independence Day, July 4, 1776: Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime — that's individualism.

Dependence Day, July 4, 2014: Teach me to vote for a socialist president and each day he will give me fish, french fries, coleslaw, hush puppies and banana pudding — that's collectivism.

Many of the 92 million Americans not in the labor force have decided not to fish, but to vote.

Why do 118 million workers in the private sector, who directly and indirectly pay government's bills with profits earned from their sweat and toil, allow themselves to be de facto slaves to those 92 million?